Strings of Fate: The First Loop

CHAPTER 60 - THE OCEAN GAVE HIM BACK

The next day felt… lighter.

Maybe not the kind of light that makes everything right again, but the kind that makes you stop and breathe a little easier. As if the air is less heavy. As if the guilt loosened its grip and just… let go, even for a moment. Island hopping with the entire senior batch was nothing short of chaos. The kind that smells like sunblock and saltwater, sounds like a thousand different laughters clashing together, and feels like your skin is already burning under the sun but you don’t really care because you're alive.

James sat beside me on the boat, legs swinging over the edge, sunglasses sliding down his nose. His fingers brushed against mine. He didn't say anything. He didn't need to.

Inez shrieked the moment a wave splashed onto her sneakers.
"I TOLD YOU NOT TO WEAR SHOES!" Tim laughed, pointing at her soggy feet.

"I had a vision! A fashion vision!" Inez protested, wiggling her toes inside the soaked sneakers.

Corey leaned in, smug. "That vision clearly didn’t include tide schedules."

"Do you have a schedule for when you’ll stop being annoying?" she shot back.

Drake and Matt were trying to out-paddle each other in a double kayak.
"LEFT, BRO, LEFT!" Matt yelled.
"THIS IS MY LEFT!" Drake yelled back, spinning the kayak in a full, hopeless circle.
They capsized, and everyone on our boat howled with laughter.

Tim snapped a photo at just the right moment, Matt’s arms flailing midair. "I'm posting this on IG."

James grinned, leaning closer to me, "You know, I missed this."

"What? Wet boys failing at water sports?"

He shook his head. "No. This. You. Laughing. With all of us."

I didn’t reply. I just looked out into the sea, the spray misting my face, the light reflecting on the water like glass shards. Maybe that was my answer. We swam in hidden lagoons, floated on our backs until our fingers pruned, screamed together while riding the banana boat and laughed through the salt stinging our eyes. We shared dried mangoes, sun chips, inside jokes, and memories that stitched themselves into the edges of the day. By the time we returned to the beach, the sun was already folding into the horizon. The sky turned from bright blue to a slow, burning blood orange. The kind of orange that makes you ache a little, like beauty trying to hold back a goodbye. We sat in a line on the sand.
Matt skipped stones into the shore.
Inez rested her head on Tim’s shoulder.
Corey was building a crooked sandcastle with a plastic cup. Drake had finally stopped complaining about the jellyfish that might have touched him.

And James... James leaned his head against mine.

"I don't want today to end," I whispered, surprising myself.

"Then let’s stay a little longer," he said. "Just a bit more."

And we did. We stayed until the last drop of light kissed the ocean. Until the fireflies appeared. Until we could no longer tell where the sea ended and the sky began. And for the first time in a long, long time… I felt like maybe we were allowed to just exist. No fixing. No trying to be strong. Just… here.

Together.

We were all dripping and half-sandy, trying to dry off and gather our things before heading back to our rooms to get ready for dinner. The air still smelled of salt, and the sky was beginning to soften from gold to rose. Corey stood at the edge of the water like some kind of prophet, arms stretched wide, chin lifted dramatically toward the sun.

"I am Moanaaaa!" he shouted, his voice cracking halfway through.

James almost choked on his laugh. “If you belt How Far I’ll Go one more time, I swear I’ll drag you back into the ocean myself.”